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With the run home to the playoffs beginning in earnest, a lift in intensity in this week’s round of Super Rugby wasn’t unexpected. But the number of talking points emerging surely exceeded expectations.
Friday night was a cracker, with the Waratahs inching their way to a derby win in Canberra.
The match promised much after two spectacular tries early, and ultimately delivered, albeit in a much different way than expected.
As the quality of the rugby deteriorated the level of intensity at the contest increased and neutral observers at least were able to sit back and enjoy an absolute dogfight to the bitter end.
The Waratahs won because their pack, with the experience of last year’s campaign holding them in good stead, had slightly more grunt – but it really was a close-run thing.
Earlier, off the back of their voluntary bye week, the Highlanders clicked back into high-paced, high-quality action. Sure the Sharks are a disappointing rabble, but there is something about watching this Highlanders side at home which should send a strong message to the IRB as to how best to spend the profits from this year’s World Cup – build as many replicas of this indoor stadium in as many rugby cities as you can.
Dry, still conditions on top of a perfect surface, with the crowd right on top of the action. How can rugby go wrong?
Certainly Lima Sopoaga didn’t put a foot wrong, and with Beauden Barrett pulling up lame on Saturday, every man and his dog seemed quick to jump on his All Black bandwagon once again.
As good as he was, all Sopoaga’s promoters should take a cold shower and sit down to a tape of last week’s loss to the Brumbies. And, for good measure, throw in a tape of the Highlanders’ loss to the Cheetahs in Invercargill from a couple of seasons back.
On the front foot, running onto Aaron Smith’s beautifully crisp passes, on the pristine Forsyth Barr surface, Sopoaga is as good as it gets. On the back foot, against a rush defence, with a bit of moisture around, he becomes a twitchy player prone to overplaying his hand and making errors.
In 2013 I wrote an article about how some players who perform strongly at Super Rugby level are not cut out to perform at Test level, focusing on the Brumbies’ Jesse Mogg. Sopoaga is that same player, and will surely be nowhere near the black number 10 jersey when things get tight and tense in October.
The Hurricanes vs Crusaders match was a beauty, with both sides intent on moving the ball at pace. Given Aaron Cruden’s injury, Barrett’s leg problem, although seemingly not too serious, will be a concern for Steve Hansen. Barrett remains an enigma, seemingly unwilling to play directly (ironically in the manner of Sopoaga), but his explosive ability and pace in broken play continues to provide more than adequate compensation.
The respective derbies once again highlighted the differences between the top Australian and top New Zealand players – not only the skill level on display, but the willingness of the players to create play and support each other.
The skill-meter was set lower for the Blues vs Force match, although John Kirwan’s side took another step forward, albeit from a low base. Hansen might be excused another heart flutter had he tuned in late to discover Jerome Kaino sitting on the sideline with his arm in a sling, although Steven Luatua and Akira Ioane stepped into the space impressively.
Unfortunately it wasn’t the quality of the rugby which took pride of place in Melbourne, but a bizarre display by the officials, headed by Andrew Lees, which took the gloss of a gutsy Rebels win.
A disclosure – I was there as a Rebels supporter and, after enduring too many frustrating losses in recent years, will take whatever good fortune is on offer. But it was hard not to feel that the Chiefs were being stiffed before our eyes, which a look at the replay later confirmed.
The worst thing that can ever be said about any referee is that his decisions unduly influence the result of the match. Unfortunately Andrew Lees’ display on the night fitted this bill.
All attacking sides obstruct, block and hold players in and around the breakdown, but the Rebels did so with brazen impunity, from the first minute until the last, without sanction or even a squeak from the sideline officials.
Instead, focus was on the Chiefs for breaking their holds, with James Lowe somehow ending up in the bin for something that potentially could have been nasty retaliation had he gone through with it, but which patently he didn’t.
However many tackles Jordy Reid and Colby Fainga’a were credited with would be doubled if they counted tackles on defensive players without the ball.
Lees warned both captains about infringements but did nothing. On one notable occasion, Reid parked himself in the back of a Chiefs’ ruck, right on the Rebels’ line for a good few seconds, escaping without even a penalty let alone a yellow card.
Nick Stirzaker scored a vital try just before halftime via a combination of accidental offside and obstruction, which seemed laughable. Imagine the turmoil at Twickenham should England lose the World Cup final to that try – the home unions would come close to shutting rugby down permanently.
SANZAR Game Manager Lyndon Bray this week clarified, in a written response to Spiro Zavos, an amended interpretation of the attacking maul rules, reassuring fans that attacking sides wouldn’t be unfairly advantaged by players being allowed to join the maul ahead of the ball carrier to provide an impenetrable shield.
Lees was all over a first-half Chiefs lineout, disallowing a try and awarding a penalty to the Rebels, but this seemed like a blatant overreaction, with no obvious obstruction evident.
Contrast this with a series of Rebels lineout mauls in the final stages of the match, which saw Liam Messam marched for two incorrect entries. Which may or may not have been any more or less correct than the Rebels players who rushed in to join the maul ahead of a dubiously bound Reid – exactly what Lyndon Bray said would be outlawed.
Not that any of this will matter a jot to Tony McGahan and his hardworking team. No doubt the Chiefs – who didn’t help their own cause by playing Andrew Horrell out of position at number 10 – will also cop the result, and the 7-14 penalty count, and move on.
Perhaps they will take a lesson from the Cheetahs who, despite a 4-12 penalty count, still managed to claim an upset win against the Stormers in Bloemfontein. Let down by a malfunctioning lineout, the Stormers conceded top spot in the South Africa conference to the Bulls, who held on to beat the Lions.
Finally, a word for Phil Gould who, moments before the start of Sunday’s Anzac Day Test, confidently predicted an easy Kangaroos win by “five tries to two or three by the Kiwis”.
The same Phil Gould who commented during the second half, with the game safely in New Zealand’s keeping, that we were witnessing a “changing of the guard, as predicted before the match.”
Yeah, sure Phil.